#OMEN AND ALPHINAUD ARE BOTH MINORS

[ex-garlean]

Happy I-Finished-Shadowbringers day!! To celebrate I speedran a little gpose of Alphinaud and Omen. I’d like to think they went out on a date after returning to the Source (some extra ones i did under the cut!)

[voidgearr]

I learned how to Gpose 🤭

Have my WoL (Omen) and Alphinaud being cutie boyfs (OMEN IS SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD)

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

i've seen a lot of "assign exaltations to media" posts recently and i wanted to get in on this, this time with final fantasy 14

major spoilers up to 7.0/Dawntrail! also, only hitting major msq characters bc i will actually lose my mind if i have to do all the side stuff and minor characters too, even though i know i'm already accidentally skipping some characters just bc the cast list is the size of the pacific and my brain is a bit fried.

"wait some of these aren't exaltations at all" sometimes it is more interesting if a heroic character is Just Some Guy

Meteor Survivor/Default Warrior of Light - Dawn Solar. It's not even close. The WoL is a very large hammer and all the world is a nail. Even their more magicy stuff they approach like a Dawn rather than a Zenith! Couple arguments that could be made for their Supernal, for trailer-WoL I'd probably go for Melee. Like I have to actively fight the game for every scrap of Not-Solar I give my own WoL, the default WoL is super fucking Solar-coded.

Minfilia - okay hear me out. she's an Exigent of Hydaelyn and her Exaltation passes down to specifically young girls who fit other certain criteria. “Oracle of Light, Minfilia” ends up a sobriquet that devours even the girls’ names in the end. 

Ryne - See above. Exigent of Hydaelyn, just one able to make her own name for herself after it all. 

Thancred - just some guy!!!!! Not an Exalt at all he's just some dude! the stealth thing he can do could easily be a mutation rather than a power related to Exaltation.

Urianger - mortal sorcerer up to 5.0, exalts as a lunar during the time gap. Can be talked out of this, it's a gut read. E: THE GUT READ IS BC HE DEALS SAFELY WITH THE FAE AND TRICKS THEM IN TURN. Changing Moon, definitely. Spirit shape is something both ominous and benefic in terms of omens.

Y’shtola - gut is that she's a mortal sorcerer but I'm not sure if/when she exalts. I feel like the best point for that if she does is actually in the future for her, assuming my read of the plot thread tea leaves is accurate. Assuming nothing else changes, probably a Solaroid, though you may be able to argue Infernal over Solar for her.

Lyse - Deeb, Fire Aspect, same as her sister. I don't have much reasoning for this, it just feels right.

G’raha - I have tried to come up with not this but he really is just the Exigent of the god of the Crystal Tower… You could probably argue for deeb, bc of the royal eye thing, but i feel very strongly that he hasn't Exalted when he first shows up and that pushes him over the deeb exaltation age limit and I personally need some kind of major explanation to accept breaking that rule and while the Crystal Tower could probably manage it... given the physical changes he shows as the Crystal Exarch in ShB I think it works better if it's a very costly (to the Exalt) Exigent exaltation.

Papalymo - Mortal sorcerer. He dies because it was the only way to fuel the spell caging Shinryu as a mortal.

Alphinaud & Alisaie - I'm torn with the twins, honestly. I lean towards them being mortals but you can definitely argue for them having an Exaltation, especially after Coils or ShB, and they're young enough to be late-bloomer deebs if you want them to light up mid-story.

Erenville - Believe it or not I do think he's an Exalt. He's a Wood Aspect Dragonblooded like his mom and he put all of his points into dealing with critters and logistics and lifting heavy things and absolutely none into combat. (You could probably also argue for Earth, honestly, I can't articulate why I feel so strongly about the Wood aspect.)

Wuk Lamat - Dawn Solar, with her Exaltation coming when she breaks through to reach the Queen Eternal again at the end of MSQ. Shockingly social-focused Dawn, but still a Dawn.

Aymeric - Air aspect Deeb. His idealism nearly gets his ass killed like three times I am not budging on this.

Haurchefant - Water aspect deeb. WAIT HEAR ME OUT: i know the easy answer is to slap Wood on him for horny crimes and call it a day, but the way the rest of his personality actually is he fits water way more, including the part where when he's at his limit he's an unstoppable terror that doesn't know restraint. I could also be convinced to assign him Fire. (He's too flexible for Earth and too practical/grounded for Air, imo.) It also fits with his family since the Fortemps we meet all kind of vibe as damp-adjacent at minimum.

Krile - Joke answer: Sidereal bc i nearly forgot to add her-- :V

More seriously, the whole "refugee from another reflection" thing makes assigning her an Exaltation difficult. Alt timelines exist in this game but reflections are explicitly not those, it's more akin to Autochthon's relationship to Creation, and (barring some serious ass-pulls from the writers in the patches) Krile is an ordinary woman in terms of physiology. She's also not dead or associated with death, so I guess that means there's four options she absolutely cannot be rather than ones she can be.

Zenos yae Galvus - Does not Exalt until after 4.0, where he rises as a Dusk Abyssal. Because it fits with how fucked up he is and StB/his arc that he, a mortal man, is able to cause problems until the WoL starts taking him seriously. I could also be open to him being a Casteless Lunar bc lunisolar bond w/WoL (I love a good Fated Nemesis and so would he) but in general I feel like his everything works better if he doesn't Exalt until he tries to remove his own head and it's important to his story that he is Very Dead-Seeming after that point which makes options very limited.

Varis zos Galvus - If he is an Exalt, he's a deeb. Earth aspect, but I could probably be talked into Fire too. The “if” is because I'm torn between him being a disappointment because he never Exalted or because he's the same aspect as his dad but never reached the same potential in grandpa’s eyes. The Garlean upper class generally maps surprisingly cleanly to Dynasts.

Emet-Selch - Honestly this applies to all three of the Unsundered, I'm just keeping the family together, but: I truly believe those three are narratively closer to Deathlords than anything else in Exalted, and I say this while also acknowledging that Zodiark is more like a Yozi than one of the Neverborn. I do not know how to square that circle.

Thordan - Deeb. Air or Earth aspect, either could work with his personality.

Sphene - Orichalcum Alchemical. Living-Sphene was mortal. (Why not liminal? Quite frankly, bc she is not made of meat and still retains her living memories, both of which are disqualifying factors.)

Zoraal Ja - Mortal. I think it adds to things if part of his violent insecurity is that he never lights up despite being his father's son.

Fandaniel - Could admittedly go with either Abyssal or Infernal, depending on what aspects of him you want to emphasize, but I personally see him as a Daybreak.

Gaius - Fire aspect deeb.